


The Cursed Name

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Clones, Community: halfamoon, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 03:39:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5952349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is there trouble? Is Luke in it? Of course. Mara to the rescue... again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cursed Name

Mara Jade was of the opinion that she honestly should have made Luke take her last name. Skywalker was cursed. Or a magnet for trouble. Or something.

 _"I just want to be certain it doesn't hold anything that could hurt the students later,"_ he had said, after learning of a Jedi Temple on Alaris Prime. Why had he not thought to ask Chewbacca about it? Alaris Prime had been a Wookie colony before the Empire had enslaved the race and cut their numbers down. Chewie would have had more information, or been able to get it.

No, she knew why he had boldly forged on; Kenobi's name was mentioned in the same record he had found mention of the Temple in. As Luke pieced together a new Jedi Order, trying to salvage all of the past he could find, he'd also grown more curious over Kenobi's and Yoda's pasts, to better judge himself against the only jedi he had ever known.

Which, of course, meant that Alaris Prime was the most dangerous place in the galaxy currently, and Luke was far overdue to return.

"Always saving your neck, Skywalker," she muttered under her breath as she worked through the dense foliage. She could make out the dimmest sense of her husband ahead of her, not in the Temple, that kept her forging on.

She had lost track of how many predators she had evaded, and knew three of them would be feeding the scavengers this day. Why did Wookies think that planets which wanted to eat them were good places to settle? Never mind that this was merely a moon.

She checked up on her forward motion as a different sound registered on her senses. It was the sound of an energy field, if she was not mistaken. Could it really be something as dumb as Luke evading a trap?

"Luke Jade sounds better every day," she whispered, because she was convinced 'Skywalker' was trouble. Leia didn't get in half the trouble her brother did! 

Mara moved through the foliage that was beginning to thin out very carefully, aware that the energy hum was definitely increasing its intensity as she grew nearer to what must be a clearing.

Rather than give up the cover of the foliage, once a distinct glow could be seen in contrast to the natural light, Mara checked to be sure there weren't any murderous creatures on the ground ahead and low-crawled forward the last little bit.

As the view opened up, Mara caught sight of the energy field that surrounded a memorial field of markers cut with the symbols of many, many species. The light blue shimmer and the hum told Mara the field was likely keeping things out of the field… until she saw two figures in between the stones toward the center. One was assuredly her wayward husband and the other was no doubt the trouble he'd found. Luke appeared to be whole, but he was bound, and… his hand was missing. 

"Luke, I am going to Force Choke you," she muttered softly, even though she knew she wouldn't. She started seeking the controls or the generator for the field, while contemplating the best way to rescue Luke.

If she placed the alien species correctly, that was a Cerean holding Luke captive. They were binary-brained with two hearts, and tended to complex analysis that sometimes left them incapable of a clear action. She pulled that information up easily, but couldn't see a good way to exploit the weakness from here.

The generator, she spotted soon enough, was inside the field. Risking detection, she found a small pebble and manipulated it with the Force, to see if it would pass through the field.

When it did, without the Cerean noticing, Mara knew she had a plan. She found a small explosive in her gear, set it for a timer so that it would not be active as it passed through the field, and centered herself. She was, by no means, an expert at this telekinetic use of the Force, but she was determined.

Slowly, she managed to levitate the explosive on a course for the generator, hoping that in damaging it, she didn't also damage her husband. The slow motion of an inanimate object worked, and though she was sweating profusely from effort, she managed to lay it near the generator without drawing attention.

Feet coiled under her, saber hilt in hand, she waited, and as soon as the timer ticked off the last second, she threw herself forward, igniting the blade… and passed through where the field had been less than a second after it failed from the loss of the generator. The explosion rocked both Luke and the Cerean, but Luke was quickly dodging behind one of the larger stone markers, leaving the initial attack fully to Mara.

That made life easier; she didn't have to worry about him right away, as he would work on getting the binders off. The Cerean met her attack with a lightsaber of his own, but she had anticipated he was probably Force-strong. To take Luke down, and with the lost hand, it made sense.

She was fresh to the fight, though, and evidently the battle with Luke had been recent, as the Cerean seemed fatigued and erratic. She held him back, gaining insight to how he fought, looking for the opening. Nor did she hesitate, taking it with a lunge that put her saber through where one of his hearts should be.

"Thanks," Luke said, as the Cerean fell, and she could step out of the battle-trance she sometimes fell into when using her saber.

"Don't ever go alone again," she said, before looking around her, seeing names and dates on the stones in Basic and the language that matched each alien symbol on the markers. "What is this place?"

Luke took a deep breath, as he held his still bound hands out to her, having failed to deactivate the anti-Force measures in them.

"A memorial of every Jedi killed during the Clone Wars," he said. "That was a clone. He called himself Muundi." His tone was bittersweet, and Mara could guess he was regretting the instability of every Jedi clone they had found. So much knowledge lost, because the clones could not be trusted not to fall to the Dark Side. "He resented my name."

Mara gave a short bark of laughter. "I keep telling you to change it, for just that reason," she said, after deactivating the binders. "Come on, Skywalker, let's go see the temple, and make sure it is safe. I have a feeling there's a lot here for you to learn."

He smiled, and put his good arm around her, to walk back to the Temple.


End file.
